Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I'm finally getting around to yet another piece that I've been finished with for months but just haven't had time to photograph until now. With the Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' upon us, I figured now would be the time to get at it! The Shark Jaw Necklace is one of the most difficult designs I have ever created, and I am so happy at how it turned out.

I absolutely love Great White Sharks. I find them incredibly fascinating, and there is just something very exciting about a creature that is so dangerous. I wanted to design something as a sort of homage to the most awe inspiring and terrifying part of the shark's anatomy: its jaws! And because I also have a great love of strange and macabre curiosities, I figured a shark jaw would be a perfect new design for my collection. Here is a behind the scenes look at my most labor intensive design yet:

One of the hardest things about this design was adding the teeth to the jaw. I cut each individual tooth out of wax, then used molten wax to adhere it to the jawline. While this worked great to get the fine details of the small teeth, it left a mess to clean up once the piece was cast. I also discovered that the bottom of the jaw was not as thick as I would have liked, so I had to add more wax. Once it was cast, I was able to really clean it up with rubber wheels and give it a very streamlined look. Here I show that process and some of the finished design:

The final product:

The 18" chain option:

The 24" chain option:

$25 from the proceeds of this necklace will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund's 'Adopt a Great White Shark,' which supports WWF's global efforts to protect these creatures and their habitats. For more information or to make a donation to this cause, please visit: http://www.worldwildlife.org